Make Your Heart Sing

I am not sure what happened.  One minute I was looking at all the new Penny Black stamps at my LSS and the next minute I was sitting there coloring it.  You know the rule, once you ink it, you own it!  Well lucky me I am now the proud owner of this beautiful bird stamp.  Oh yeah, it had to have a set of sentiments to go with it, so I now am the proud owner of a set of Eloquent Penny Black Sentiments too.  I don't know how it happened, but I am sure glad it did.

This stamp is show in Penny Black's catalog colored very similar to the one above.  I referred to the catalog while coloring.  I wanted to give myself a challenge doing the background with my Copics.  Normally I would have sponged the background with ink pads, but I was at the store and didn't have anything except my Copics with me.  When I say challenge I really meant it.  Getting the graduating shades of color to flow smoothly took a lot of blending, but that is the beauty of Copic Markers.  I don't want to think about how much ink I used in each of my markers.  I am sure it would have been more cost effective to sponge on Distress Inks with a dauber but a girl has to do what a girl has to do.

After I colored the piece, I used Pearl Stickles to highlight the flower centers.  The large flower has a pearl glued to it's center.  I then used a lighter to burn the edges of the paper leaving it naturally shaped for interest.  I planned on entering this in the "Less Is More" challenge, so I had to leave the background very plain.  I chose an off-white (looks yellow in the photo) card stock for base.  I cut the paper in half and ran it through the crimper for the background.  I positioned the top and bottom pieces in opposite directions for interest.  Finished it off with a matching satin ribbon and bow.

Below is the picture of the inside.  The sentiment is from the Penny Black set and the flower and candy dot are from my stash.  The leaf was made using "Beautiful Stems" a SU Sizzlit.  The sentiment and mat were cut with Spellbinder dies.

That's about it for this one.  I have to admit that I really enjoyed coloring this and the burning technique was a lot of fun to do.  Be careful if you try this at home.  Do it over your sink with a went paper towel or sponge so you can blot the fire out if it gets too big.  Practice your fire safety standards.  I don't want to be responsible for anyone burning their homes down.

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